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Hi I play the piano and I'm think to make my Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance

Just want to know what advice does the teachers of this forum can give me. I have been playing piano for 4 years. I can play classical and modern music like: Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata 3 and 1 Movements and Pathetique sonata 2 Movement from Beethoven. In the end from Linkin Park. One Man`s Dream from Yanni and 3 not very popular. I have maked my own piano music and so far I have 1 song finished and 2 started. I know enough scales like 16 with they relatives and arpeggios.

I'm scared because in the Conservatorio de Musica de Puerto Rico (The music University) they ask me for a Review of music theory and a audition. But I don't have any experience playing in front of judges.

Any advice will be very helpfully thanks for your time. By the way English is not my first language so forgive me if I am not so clear. Feel free to ask.

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Living my life in notes, and inside a piano.

I would find a teacher and quick! They can help you prepare for auditions and tell you mistakes or bad habits that you are doing and may not even realize. Without having heard you, I must be perfectly honest based on what you've told us so far.

4 years is not usually long enough unless you are extremely gifted. I'm telling this to let you know you will be competing with students who have studied piano with a teacher for about 10 years. There are always limited spots that teachers at schools have and so they will only be able to take those that have the most promise. That may be you, then again it may not. But it is something to keep in mind.

The pieces that you've played do not have enough variety in the classical genre: basically, you've played all Beethoven, and then some modern music which I'm pretty sure you will not be allowed to play at auditions. Most schools will ask for a Classical sonata movement (which you do have), a Baroque piece on par with a Bach suite or Prelude & Fugue, a Romantic piece like a Chopin nocturne, and sometimes they want to hear a 4th piece from the 20th century. This would not include the music you've played by Linkin Park or Yanni. It will have to be a modern composer who is more in line with the classical tradition.

So you will need to learn 2-3 other pieces at least to be prepared for auditions. However, I'm pretty sure they will want to know what repertoire you've learned so far, and if all you can show is that you've worked on pieces just for auditions plus a little extra Beethoven, that does not bode well for you. They will want to see a well-rounded education and that you've worked on Bach inventions and possibly some other Baroque pieces, a Mozart and Haydn sonata, and a few Romantic pieces.

I am not saying this to discourage you, these are just the facts. I do not know the specific requirements of the Puerto Rico Conservatory and so I highly suggest you consult with a faculty member there to find out what they want to hear at auditions and what they like to see in potential students.

You may benefit from taking lessons either from a teacher at the Conservatory for a year or two if a teacher there will take you, to get you to the point where you need to be for auditions. Otherwise, you will definitely need to find a good private instructor who can listen to you and really assess your skills and chances of getting in. Don't be afraid to take a year or two off to prepare, or you can always enroll at school without declaring a major and simply get all of your general requirements out of the way, then audition when your teacher says you're ready.

I would agree with Morodiene about contacting a good teacher for help in preparing. My child got into university after only 4 years and had to audition against students who had played more than twice as long. It was a top university so the demands were higher than they might be elsewhere, but I think what we saw still holds true. The teacher preparing him gave him the right variety of pieces as Morodiene says. But he was also given enough technique and other things. The private teacher also knew what kinds of things the university wanted students to have, and made sure he had them. He knew what kinds of attitudes were expected, and was warned about what pursuing those kinds of studies would be like. This young man is gifted, but he still had to work very hard with the guidance of teachers combined with his own drive and ideas in order to make it.

As a person in university doing a Bachelor of Music, I would have to agree with Morodiene has said. I would like to ask though, the university that you are wishing to attend, does it have a minor studies program that might be a music/arts degree with some attention given to music history, analysis, research as well as performance? Finding a good teacher haste is the thing you have to do first, perhaps ask around at the conservatory about the teachers.

Thank you very much Its better that what I expected. I'm thinking to go to the CMPR in about year and a half, because right now I'm studying other thing, but I started to take class with a teacher who graduated her self from the CMPR. That's why I can play that classical pieces, right now I'm asking for some kind of advice to make my fingers to move more free by themselves, because of collage right now I cant practice every day like before but I don't want to loose the talent that I got so far.

I'm sorry if my post is not clear but English is my second language and its kinda hard to write what I think.

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Living my life in notes, and inside a piano.

What Rebekah is asking is: Does the school you want to go to have a smaller/easier/half-playing half-learning program that you could take? In other words, do they have a class where you learn about music and perform music, rather than all performance?

To my understand yes they have, but its for beginners who doesn't even know how to read music. But in then ext week I'm going to be off collage and I'm going to the CMPR to ask in person to one of the piano teachers in the university, that way I think it will be easier. But I'm open to keep reading advices and opinions in this forum.

Thanks for your time and opinions

_________________________
Living my life in notes, and inside a piano.